


i mean this more than words can ever say

by catalysis



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Christmas Presents, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, School Dances, in ch2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:46:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28184133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catalysis/pseuds/catalysis
Summary: Trying to find a gift for your best friend can be challenging.
Relationships: Kozume Kenma/Kuroo Tetsurou
Comments: 9
Kudos: 36
Collections: Kuroken Christmas Exchange 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [irisowari](https://archiveofourown.org/users/irisowari/gifts).



> kuroken xmas exchange fic for [addison nicole](https://twitter.com/addisonnnnx)! hope you enjoy :)

“He likes video games, right?” Bokuto asks in the middle of a Target at 9pm. A perfect Thursday night.

Tetsurou frowns. “Well, yeah, but—”

“Then just buy him a video game, bro.”

“I wanna get him something more thoughtful,” Tetsurou says, “and besides, somehow he always gets the games he wants on release day, so I don’t even know that there are any games left for me to buy.” Tetsurou sighs, because this really shouldn’t be that complicated. But then again, his feelings are _very_ complicated, so he supposes that finding a gift that expresses them would have to be equally tiring.

“Okay, how about this,” Tetsurou tries. “What did you get Akaashi?”

Bokuto pauses and cocks his head a little. “Well, there was this book he kept mentioning…”

And well, that’s basically the same thing, isn’t it? Tetsurou resists the urge to sigh again because he’s pretty sure he’s reached the limit before Bokuto and his hair, the perennially sympathetic sighers, start drooping too. 

So, Tetsurou continues shuffling down the video game aisle.

He’s rooting around in the discount bin when he sees it. Tetsurou pulls it out and stares at it for long enough that Bokuto makes his way over.

“ _Cooking Mama 2_?” Bokuto asks. “I wouldn’t think this would be a game that Kenma would like, but you know him best, I suppose.”

“No, Kenma refuses to play anything but Pokemon on his DS,” Tetsurou explains. “This is for me.”

Bokuto blinks at him. _Owlishly_ , his brain supplies, which, yeah, but that's normal. Tetsurou can tell that he doesn't get it, but that's fine. Everything will work out in the end.

❄❄❄

“How about this?” Tora asks, holding out a mug molded into the shape of a dog. It’s so tacky. Kuro would love it.

Nevertheless, Kenma scrunches his nose up. “No.”

Tora puts the mug down. “You know he’ll like anything you get him.”

“Well I don’t want to get him just _anything_.”

“What about these?” There’s a bag of cat treats in Tora’s hand, and Kenma doesn’t even know where he got it from. Aren’t they in the kitchen aisle?

“ _No_.”

Kenma sneaks the dog mug into his basket. It clinks against the photo frame already inside.

They drift into the greeting card aisle, as retail stores tend to make you do, and the oversized greeting cards give Kenma an idea. It’s maybe a little bit embarrassing and kitschy, but so is Kuro, so it’ll work out.

❄❄❄

Everything does not work out.

It starts going downhill when Tetsurou tries to turn his DS on, only to have it be out of battery, and his charger is, of course, nowhere to be found.

And when he finally gets it charged and starts the game, Tetsurou realizes that this might be more difficult than he'd anticipated.

❄❄❄

The next morning, on the way to school, Kenma doesn't notice Tetsurou's tired appearance. Or at least, if he does, he doesn't mention it. Which is great, because Tetsurou can't help but imagine Kenma's reaction if he had to explain how a cooking game got the best of him.

But he can’t help but notice that Kenma seems more pensive than usual on the train to school. He even only finishes four levels of his game, instead of the five he’d been clearing the past few days.

And at lunch, Kenma isn’t in his class when Tetsurou goes to bring him back to Class 3-5 so he and Yaku can take turns reminding him to eat.

Strange.

❄❄❄

Maybe that idea wasn’t so great after all.

“What should I write?” Lev asks. He’s tapping a pen that’s definitely too nice to be his against his mouth.

Kenma shrugs. “Whatever you want.”

“Hey, stop biting my pen!” Inuoka drops the other two cards on Lev’s desk. “Ah, Kenma, did you forget to write something on Kuroo’s card?”

Kenma had hoped no one would notice. “... I was going to get to it later.”

He quickly turns back to Lev, who still hasn’t written anything. “Please just hurry up and write something. Lunch is almost over.” Kenma sighs when Lev scrawls something way too large on the card, but folds it back up neatly when it’s offered back to him.

Okay, Lev just needs to sign the other two cards. Shouldn’t take that long, Kenma thinks, maybe he’ll even have time to—

“What should I write?”

❄❄❄

He leaves Yaku and Kai’s cards on their desks. Kuro’s, Kenma tucks into his own bag.

❄❄❄

The train home is more crowded than usual, which makes sense considering that it’s the last Friday before Christmas. This just means that Kenma has to hook an arm around the pole to play his game.

And you’d think after three years of the same train ride nearly every day, he’d have a sense of when the stops are coming. But no, of course he doesn’t. It’s only Kuro’s hand on his shoulder that keeps him from toppling over, or worse, dropping his console.

Kuro’s hand. On his shoulder. 

It lingers.

Kenma loses the level.

❄❄❄

An hour and a half-raw, half-burnt pie later, Tetsurou stares balefully back into Mama's flaming eyes.

His sister, home for the holidays, just laughs and cuts everyone a slice from the edible portions. “Maybe just look up a recipe next time.”

❄❄❄

His message on Yaku and Kai’s cards were pretty easy to write. Now he’s just left with Kuro’s.

Kenma thinks about a little boy who’d just moved into the house next door. He thinks about learning to love volleyball. He thinks about hands gently brushing dye through his hair. He thinks about a hand on his shoulder, steadying him.

He thinks. And then he writes.

❄❄❄

On Christmas morning, Tetsurou’s alarm goes off a lot earlier than he’d like it to, but he trudges down to the kitchen anyways.

And his sister was right, a recipe really does help. At least, it makes a lot more sense than whatever he was doing in that DS game. 

The pie turns out a tiny bit wonky, but it at least looks completely edible. A definite improvement.

❄❄❄

Kenma’s making the most of his Christmas morning by playing the game his parents had tried to hide in a tiny bag shoved behind all of the other gifts. He’d known it was there since Thanksgiving.

And then he gets a text.

 **[kuro] 09:12**  
r u awake

 **09:13**  
yeah  
**09:14**  
why

 **[kuro] 09:16**  
omw to drop off ur gift

 **09:17**  
k

A minute later, Kenma opens the door to Kuro holding a box that he assumes is his gift if the bow on the top is anything to go by.

Under the bow, through the clear plastic window, Kenma can see “Apple pie?”

“Yeah. It’s still warm, so if you haven’t had breakfast yet…”

After Kenma’s carved them each a slice, he hands Kuro a glittery green gift bag. “Merry Christmas.”

The apple pie is good, but maybe the look on Kuro’s face when he pulls out that mug is just as good. And when he gets to the framed picture of the team, that’s even better.

And then he pulls out the card. Kenma stares down at his slice of pie and its pretty golden crust and shiny filling. It’s quiet in the living room save for the pie crust quietly flaking apart on Kenma’s fork.

“This is…” Kuro trails off. He has that look in his eye. The one he gets before one of his overly sentimental speeches.

“Please don’t cry.” Kenma winces. “All the seniors got one. And besides, you baked me a whole pie, Kuro.”

“It’s just a pie.” Kuro doesn’t take his eyes off of the card.

And Kenma’s about to tell him to leave so he can reread the card somewhere where Kenma doesn’t have to be reminded of the completely embarrassing things he wrote in the card.

“You mean a lot to me too,” Kuro says, finally looking up. 

Kenma looks away as he feels himself blush. _You’re my best friend_ , he had written. _You mean so much to me_. It’s all true, but he hates admitting anything like that.

“Hey, Kenma?”

Kenma looks up and sees Kuroo’s stupid bedhead and his familiar gray eyes and the curve of his mouth and a smudge of flour along his cheekbone. 

When he leans in to brush it away with his thumb, he lets Kuro meet him halfway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the school dance bit felt a little disconnected so i made it a separate chapter :)


	2. Chapter 2

“Wait, does this mean you’ll come to the dance now?”

“Didn’t they stop selling tickets last week?”

“Yeah, but…”

“You bought an extra ticket, didn’t you.”

❄❄❄

“We can leave, if you want,” Tetsurou says as he takes a random seat at the table. Fukunaga’s, if the napkin sculptures are anything to go by.

Kenma barely glances up from his PSP that’s plugged into the wall. Ah, so that’s why he wanted this table. Tetsurou does not think too hard about _how_ Kenma knew which table would be near an outlet.

“No, it’s fine.” Kenma glances up again, this time toward the dance floor where the rest of the volleyball club are doing something that _could_ be called dancing, depending on your definition. It could also be called unsynchronized shuffling, plus whatever Lev’s doing. “They look like they’re having fun. You should join them.”

The last line is said a bit quieter, and Kenma’s head is dipped just a bit lower, his hair falling from where it had been tucked behind his ear when Tetsurou had first sat down. _Oh_.

“Hey,” Tetsurou says, low, “I’m here with you.” Kenma doesn’t look up again, but Tetsurou can see his shoulders shift. “I'm only gonna dance if it's with you.”

“Sure,” Kenma says and, while Tetsurou’s processing that, puts his PSP and charger away to wherever he’d been keeping them.

“Huh?”

“Let’s dance,” Kenma says, pushing his chair back, and Tetsurou just stares, wide-eyed. “Unless you don’t want to…”

Tetsurou stands up so fast that he almost knocks his chair over.

The second they get onto the vaguely demarcated dance floor, the 2000s pop changes to something slower. Again, Tetsurou does not think too hard about how Kenma timed this so perfectly.

When Lev sees them, he opens his mouth and Yaku moves to elbow him, but Tora beats him to it. The team goes back to their shuffling.

Kenma’s hands are firm on his shoulders and Tetsurou places his hands gently on Kenma’s waist. They’re just shuffling, pretty much the same as the team but in tandem, but it’s sweet in a way that Tetsurou hadn’t expected.

Even in the dim light, Tetsurou can see the glint of Kenma’s golden eyes. He forgets about the rest of the people around them and he ignores the suspiciously camera-like flash from the direction of the team.

He doesn’t know what it is that makes Kenma’s mouth curl into a soft smile, but he leans down anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/nyamayachi)


End file.
